Fiction and humor writer and Vermont Public Radio commentator

White Papers

Vermont’s Ageing Legacy Governing Systems How we understand our complex systems affects the quality of our discussion about them, as well as any agreements we might make toward progress. Too often, we are myopic and imagine decisions we make in Vermont are the sole determinant of outcomes, when in fact our geographic boundaries mean less and less. As a friend recently pointed out, the decision by the Saud royal family to sell Aramco may have a greater impact on Vermont than all our energy management efforts combined. We are buffeted by regional, national, and global winds that have more impact on us than we understand. We are 620,000 people living on 10,000 square miles. To make progress on the challenges …Continue reading →

One casualty of the endless roll-up of entertainment, media and consumer electronic companies into ever larger “media conglomerates” is culture itself. An article in the New York Times two years ago (4/25/00) signaled BMG’s decision to curtail much of its classical production and called into question its long-term commitment to classical repertoire. BMG is the owner of the RCA Red Seal and BMG Classics divisions as well as RCA Victor Jazz and Bluebird labels spanning roughly 75 years of recorded history. Sony, the current owner of the Columbia Records Classics, Columbia Jazz and Legacy, is perpetually reassessing costs, code for library reductions. Universal Classics, the roll-up of Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Decca, Polygram and Mercury Classics, arguably five of the richest …Continue reading →

I. A Strategy for Preserving Content Value and Maximizing Distribution Opportunities (A white paper) “Given the amorphous nature of inflection points, how do you know the right moment to take an appropriate action, to make the changes that will save your company or your career? Unfortunately, you don’t. “But you can’t wait until you do know: Timing is everything. If you undertake these changes while your company is still healthy, while your ongoing business forms a protective bubble in which you can experiment with the new ways of doing business, you can save much more of your company’s strength, your employees and your strategic position. But that means acting when not everything is known, when the data aren’t yet in. …Continue reading →

To varying degrees, the needs of a society are met by three de facto socio-economic resources: private sector goods and services, government services and not-for-profit organizations. I say “organized” only to highlight the fact that so much of what makes small-scale communities in Vermont and elsewhere function is a persistent sense of “the common good” and individual empathy and initiative that keeps neighbor looking after neighbor in ways that blessedly defy organization. Each of these three sectors is highly nuanced with many extrinsic crossover points. The current federal administration’s decision to include funding of religious organizations is an example of how these boundaries can intersperse. It is not, however, the purpose of this paper to analyze these nuances, but rather …Continue reading →